The Veteran
by ThalioTP
Summary: Izuku Midoriya has retired. His Quirk had long past on to his daughter, a memoriam of his late wife Ochako Uraraka. But when a bomb struck at a certain mall, killing more than a dozen including his own daughter who had desperately tried to save everyone, Izuku was baffled when the heroes had turned a blind eye. He will do whatever it takes to find his daughter's killers. (Vig!Deku)
1. Stage One: Shock

**|[12th June - Afternoon]|**

"強い"

Meaning 'strong', 'powerful', 'mighty'... everything Izuku had hoped for in a daughter.

He reminisces once more on the day of her birth, how she looks like in her first dress, how she calls up to him from when she was only tall enough to reach his knees.

Now here he is, watching from the distance in the comfort of his car, staring at his hazy mirrored figure of his own time-stricken face, sewn into a middle aged look not quite his own 30 years ago.

The fading expression on the window emphasizes the flaws of a grown man; the more he tries to look away from the wrinkles that form on the corner of his eyes and the hollow cheeks that begin to sink into the innards of his mouth, the more he empathizes the inability he has to move backwards in time where he was more youthful and exuberant.

Sometimes he wishes that he can be more appealing to his daughter. Girls these days liked to show off how handsome their dad is, Izuku had read.

His heart clenches tightly, a looming anxiety fills his head. He grips the steering wheel in strength, unable to let go of his sudden fearful shaking.

What if she doesn't like him just because of his age?

Izuku shakes his head, believing that such lies should not be allowed to be able to manipulate him.

However, it does troubles him when he remembers the constant aches and back pains that continues to strike him with his guard down to this day. He is getting old, there is not a doubt about it.

He wonders if he can carry her on his shoulders again. He sighs knowing that he probably can't because of reasons he cannot alter yet is foreseeable still.

His daughter is no longer a child.

She doesn't want shoulder rides anymore, she doesn't want trips to the ice cream shop anymore, he doesn't need to check on her in the toilet every now and then, and he knows there will be a day where she will be completely independent, not needing him in her life anymore.

The school where she studies, it isn't U.A., but it's just as good. It was her choice to go there. Honestly, Izuku felt a little bit betrayed. But he didn't wanted her to know that he distrusted her opinion.

From the car he can see it standing just as tall as U.A., and twice as large. She had told him about the beta testing grounds, the swimming pool, and the track fields fit into one school, perhaps that is why it looks so big.

This is his first time taking her home from school, after all. He had promised her months before and hoped to surprise her once she got out of school.

Nervously he sits in his car, tapping his steering wheel with his fingers, wiping the sweat on his neck despite the air conditioning system on half power.

The digital clock on his watch waits for the moment where the doors of her high school opens for all of its students to go home. But what should he say when that happens?

Finally, it is _15:30_.

He checks his rear view mirror, and little by little the students are fumbling out of the buildings and down towards the stairs leading to the streets below where Izuku had parked.

The students, all wearing similar polished black uniforms and brick red skirts and pants completed with matching hats, begin to scatter off into different paths.

He waits and waits and waits until he finally notices a familiar chestnut brown in amidst the crowds. He tries to get a clearer view, waiting for the crowd of children to scatter and eventually thins down until he can spot his own daughter's long awaited face. Then he sees it, the girl that is the spitting image of his late wife.

Tsuyoi Midoriya, the mightiest child he knows, her gleaming smile in the distance echoes inside his mind.

She always has her mother's bobcut hair, mixed with the unruly tips like her father. Her chestnut hair is certainly darker, but it is Uravity's trademark color nonetheless. The pink of her letterman jacket reminds Izuku of his wife's old hero costume, it really fits Tsuyoi well, the color does. Her friends are quite taller than her, yet she looks rather prominent, like the youth version of Izuku in a way. When she smiles once more, laughing heartily at whatever contextless humor in which Izuku hears, he can't help but to be blown away.

With a deep breath he calms himself down, waiting for his daughter to walk towards the train station only for him to surprise her in her tracks. But how will he do it?

He decides to wait a little longer, still noticing Tsuyoi chattering ever so busily with her friends. He spots several other girls like her, some taller and some shorter, some have some sort of body mutation due to their Quirks and some, like Tsuyoi, looks completely normal. It's good for her to have friends, and it's better to see that she is currently parting ways with them. Izuku turns on his gas, his heart hammering impatiently against his rib cage.

Then he feels his whole body freezes, watching a scene unfolds before him.

Is his daughter... talking to a boy?!

He is her age too, nonetheless! Izuku wants to shriek in panic and joy, the picture of his own mother glimpsing through his head as he imagines himself freaking out on where he idly sits.

Is he her boyfriend? How long have they been going out? Have they kissed each other yet? Have they even hugged?! Does he know that Tsuyoi is the 10th holder of One-For-All?! What if... she accidentally passes her DNA?! WHAT IF HE'S THE ONE WHO ACCIDENTALLY PASSES HIS DNA?!

A million fearful thoughts flood his mind, unable to make him think straight. Once more he hastily tries to regain his composure when he realizes that Tsuyoi is no longer talking to said boy. The two part ways like she did with the others.

Izuku waits for his moment, just as Tsuyoi walks away from her school on the pedestrian path on the side of the road.

Then, he lowers down his window. He raises a hand and is immediately noticed.

"Y-yo!" He says nervously, wishing for death.

Tsuyoi's eyes widens in response, surprised by her father's sudden appearance. She seems to be at a loss for words, and when she decides that she has no apparent reason to ignore him, she approaches the parked Honda Fit on the other end of the street.

She embarrassingly smiles at her father, before she hastily enters the backseat.

Izuku still is unable to make a conversation starter. He can't find the right topic to say right off the bat, also wondering whether or not Tsuyoi had a good day at school today. He ultimately decides to drive off of his parking space, zooming away from the school which ends up shrinking in the rear view mirror.

"S-sorry for not telling you anything," Izuku nervously says to her, looking at the figure of the girl from the rear view mirror, "Y-you did say that you w-wanted to have me drive you home someday. I-I thought it would be n-nice to do it once in a while, you know?"

"It's fine, Dad," Tsuyoi reassures him, scratching her arm in apparent discomfort, "I just thought that... you had work today..."

"Oh! Well, I asked for an early leave today," Izuku explains to her, "Tomorrow is Saturday, after all."

"Yeah," Tsuyoi says monotone voice, looking out of the window with a distanced look on her eyes. She seems somewhat troubled, and such things made Izuku's mind gets flooded with nervous thoughts.

He bit his lips, furrowing his eyebrows in a 'do-or-die' manner.

"So how was school today?" He asks her, feeling his self confidence built up.

Tsuyoi seems to be shifting in her seat, "It was alright."

"Did you... do well studying?" He asks again.

She merely shrugs in response, "I guess..."

"H-hey," Izuku suddenly starts, gulping as his body tenses for he finally is going to ask her a rather intimate question, "who was that b-boy you meet earlier?"

"He's just a friend, Dad!" Her answer comes as quick as it is surprising, "And his name is Hikaru..."

"I see," Just friends she says, but Izuku somehow still has a part in him that wants to double-check, "I-I think it's good that you have m-many friends!"

He begins to ramble on into things he suddenly reminisces over from the past, and Tsuyoi seems to be less than interested to hear along. She keeps a straight face, waiting for his father to stop muttering over the things that runs through his head like a jet train on full speed.

"Y-you see, Dad always had a hard time fitting in with people back when I was your age. I guess they p-picked on me because I was weak and small. I-it really took a toll on me, you know? Haha! A-and I only started I opened up to your mother back when we met in U.A.—"

Fuck! His mouth accidentally slips!

With a horror-stricken face he quickly glances at his daughter through the mirror, then he catches the slight look of mild annoyance in her face. He immediately looks away from her gaze, wishing to himself that he can stop feeling like he is forced to commit seppukku.

Two words. All he has to do is just not say those two words.

"S-sorry..." He quickly apologizes.

Tsuyoi has nothing else to add, she merely hums to him in return. The emotions etch on her face is currently unable to be decrypted. The atmosphere briskly weights a thousand pounds, out of the two Izuku can obviously feel it.

The ride back home is full of silence.

 **|[12th June - Late Night]|**

The Midoriya household has just finished their dinner.

Izuku waits for the evening news to stop airing, his eyes are still affixed to the rocketing prices of rice. Tsuyoi is already upstairs on the second floor bathroom cleaning herself up and brushing her teeth before sleeping.

When he finally turns off the television, he goes back to the kitchen to clean the dishes. He tries to remember back to the piles and piles work he still has. But he knows he couldn't actually expect himself to do computer work in one night.

That is the flaw of his current job as a worker in the Information and Communication Technology Department. But he should expect as much. After all, the actually field of work actually shortens for I.T.

He didn't believe himself at first to have finally land himself in a steady job which pays him regularly with him actually finding no complaints right after his retirement as a hero. People back then believes that a hero, once they're retired, can live a long leisurely life after being paid dearly by the government. That is wrong. Heroes who decides to retire early is only then to be burdened by the choice of finding work in two weeks or else they are homeless.

Izuku hates computer work, but it's the closest field he can get without embarrassing himself in front of others. The last time he tried being a waiter ends badly for him. (He doesn't know why, but he feels like he wants to give the people who thought he would look good in a suit vest and bow tie a second thought.)

But alas, if it isn't for the goal he has planned on years before, he wouldn't be as enthusiastic to work as today.

He stops scrubbing the plate in response to the footsteps he hears from the second floor. It appears Tsuyoi isn't well asleep as he expects her to be, knowing that how late at night it is. And considering that tomorrow is a Saturday, it is puzzling for her to be awake if it isn't for the reason of homework.

Izuku places the wet plates aside, drying his hands on the towel hanging by the sink next to him. He then decides to check up on her in worry. The living room is already quiet as he turns off the lights one by one, readying to come upstairs.

He then finds himself staring at the door of his daughter's room, freezing at the sudden wariness in his mind. But he is rather worried sick, and nothing will stop him.

As he gathers all his courage, he pushes the door in, "T-Tsu-Chan? May I come in?"

He is suddenly greeted by the darkness of her room, and only one light seems to be lighting it from the inside which is the desk lamp that he placed for her along with the DIY desk that he builds himself years before.

And Tsuyoi can be seen sitting on her mesh chair, leaning back with an apparent dismay splattered across her face. She doesn't even acknowledge the presence of her own father.

"W-what's wrong?" Izuku tries asking her.

"Nothing, Dad," She sighs, rolling away from his vision before giving him a view of the back of her head as she goes back to her desk.

Izuku takes a step closer, looking at the sight of the little girl in a messy state. What is so important on her desk that she has to work so hard on?

It surprises him that on his desk only sits a simple Hero Studies book he remembers buying her for independent learning at home. She is also apparently making notes on her notebook, writing down bits of the book nonchalantly.

Before he can question her why she intends to go on such lengths, he then unknowingly lay his eyes onto a sheet of papers sitting right beside her.

They are her test results, from the mid semester's mock exams that her school holds every semester. He doesn't need to see all of the results from the stack that sits idly under her arm, just from the top paper he can guess that she didn't do well on Heroics as the score starts on the number 3.

Izuku's mouth forms into an 'o'.

"You could've just asked me for help, Tsu-chan," Izuku remarks, "You know I'll be more than happy to help you with anything you have trouble with."

"Ugh, but I can't ask you for help, Dad!" Tsuyoi suddenly snaps at him. The 10th user of One-For-All rubs the bridge of her nose in stress, until her voice slides down into nothing more than a low exhausted plead, "You wouldn't understand..."

Izuku blinks.

Then he furrows his brows.

"Come on, you can tell me what's wrong," Izuku tells her sternly, sitting down on the edge of her flower pattern bed.

Tsuyoi is silent at first, she then swivels around to face him in the pregnant pause that compels the two to face each other, "It's just that... you and mom are both from U.A., and just because I didn't get in, I feel like it you're just belittling me by trying to help me..."

Izuku nods understandingly in response, "Your mother and I both love you for who you are, Tsuyoi, you know that, right?"

"I do," She sighs back in defeat, "But... I want to become just like you two, who got into U.A., and graduated out of it together. I wanted to become just as much as a hero as you were, Dad. But... now that I have failed to pass the Entrance Exam, even though I am entrusted with One-For-All, I feel like I can't be that anymore. Everyone at Shiketsu is aiming to become a hero, but I know I need to do twice even four times as hard to be able to catch up to you when you were young."

"You being in Shiketsu is the least I care about," Izuku reveals, "As long as you're aiming for that dream, I don't care which school you go to. You're our daughter, and that's enough to convince us that you can be even better than us."

Tsuyoi hangs her head in shame, "I'm sorry I didn't get accepted into U.A..."

Izuku merely smiles at her, "That's okay, sweetheart. I know you're going to be a great hero someday no matter which school you go to."

He stands up, then he takes two long steps towards her, before bending down to her level to embrace her figure in a tight hug. Tsuyoi unknowingly hugs back, unable to comprehend the atomic comfort that she feels between her father's arms.

"I hope tomorrow you're ready," He says to her, "because I'm taking you to your favorite katsudon place for lunch!"

"Y-you don't have to do that, Dad!" Tsuyoi nervously tells him, feeling a bit overwhelmed by his sudden generosity.

"No, it's alright, I see you've been having trouble aiming to become more than I have been," Izuku says, "But your grandmother knows just the thing to keep me energized! I'll take you to eat katsudon tomorrow as a reward for all your hard work and hope for the best in your studies!"

Tsuyoi glances down in embarrassment, her cheeks reddening in the process, "T-thanks, Dad."

He chuckles to himself in happiness, knowing that his words can finally get to her. He has not lose his touch as a father, and he knows Ochako will never scold him for taking their daughter for a trip such as this.

Finally, he bids his daughter goodnight, before closing the door behind him as he walks out of the room.

He smiles to himself, staring at the wall before him.

"I did it, Ochako," He thinks to himself, "I hope your can see what our daughter has become..."

Night falls fast on the Midoriya household. The occupants are fast asleep.

 **|[13th June - Noon]|**

"Lighten up, Dad. We aren't even official yet," Tsuyoi's giggles echoes from the passenger seat.

Izuku still looks tense, knowing that he had been listening to a Tsuyoi ramble on about a boy named Hikaru for about two minutes now. Now Izuku is sure that this is his daughter without a hint of doubt.

"B-but what if he's not... you know... the one?" Izuku questions fearfully, "What would you then?"

Tsuyoi merely laughs in response, "Seriously, Dad? He's just a genuinely good guy! There's nothing going on between us. Even if there was, it would be a great boost for the both of us, no?"

"R-really?" Izuku raises his eyebrow suspiciously, "Why?"

"Because both you and Mom were hero couples! And everyone know that," She brags, raising her chin in apparent gratification.

As he parks their car on the only available space in the parking lot, Izuku makes a face full of bafflement at his own daughter, "You shouldn't really think of your parents that way..."

"But you two were the most well known power couple in history!" Tsuyoi shrieks at him in sudden glee, "Don't you think I can do the same?!"

"That's not the point," Izuku corrects her, turning off the car engine in the process, "The reason your mom and I had to team up was because of you."

Tsuyoi can see the apparent troubled look on his face and reminds herself not to talk about his old life as a superhero. She knows very well why he doesn't like to talk about his old career, mainly because everyone knows what had happened to him years before.

The sudden guilt that overwhelms Tsuyoi disappears when Izuku calls her out of the car. The both of them continue onto the mall side by side.

Reminiscing back, how long had it been since Izuku talks about Ochako Uraraka?

Said late wife has been gone for more years than Tsuyoi can remember, she couldn't even bring herself to find it in her memories to see what her mother had even looked like in the flesh. She has seen the photos on the magazines, she has watched all the news program starring Uravity in the middle of her field work, but none of them seems close enough for Tsuyoi to find real.

Izuku himself knows he can't bring himself to talk about her in front of their own daughter, not when she is too young to know what had happened. But alas, he guesses that she already knows. It has been covered on the news and other media, after all.

Maybe he can bring himself to finally talk about his wife once more as he realizes how Tsuyoi needs it more at her current age than ever.

"Y-you see, Tsu-chan," Izuku starts, "I have nothing against you having a boyfriend—"

"Dad!"

"Hear me out!" He quickly backtracks, "I'm not against you having a boyfriend... but you shouldn't believe that that was the reasons both your mother and I became heroes."

They both walk pass the bustling crowds, towards the giant water fountain that stands the highest than anything else in the lobby.

"You're a great judge of person all by yourself, Tsuyoi, and you'll do great with others," He tells her again, "However it shouldn't limit of what you can do. Your mother and I... yes we were hero duos, but we did that because we know that it can become our strength, not our weakness. Imagine what would happen if a villain—"

He stops, a dark thought enters his mind, making his body freeze in response. Tsuyoi can see the rather terrified expression etched across his face.

"... Please don't let others become your weakness, that is what I wish," Izuku tells her in a hushed voice, "Let them be your guide and your strength. Don't let it pull you down like what happened to me after your m-mother died..."

"Dad..." Tsuyoi manages to mutter out, nodding curtly, "I... promise I wouldn't let it bring me down. I want to be just as good as you two were."

Then, she smiles. An act capable of melting the sun and Izuku's heart. It is official; she is his wife's daughter.

"Honey," He says with a lopsided smile, "I'm retired now, it's your responsibility to become better than us."

They continue on their way towards their original destination. Both father and daughter can feel the unnatural silence between the two of them, something as close as an Eldritch Horror has completely stir the atmosphere quite heavily.

The elephant in the mall is none other than the mysterious past of one Izuku Midoriya, even Tsuyoi herself can feel the rather darkened aura oozing from him.

But Tsuyoi would be lying if she doesn't say that she feels at ease.

Izuku also feels the same, knowing how well his own daughter would be when she knows that's both her parents were heroes.

In the past, he fears that he might needed to talk to her about her choices in life. He is completely aware of the fact that One-For-All needed to be passed down onto someone, who else can it be other than his own daughter?

Sometimes he wishes that he didn't need to force his daughter to this life, had he chosen a different path. Something he knows that wouldn't be too much of a burden to such young child.

But the irony in which he reminds himself of the day he first saw Ochako, it makes him wonder if he really wants a better life.

The two of them, both Ochako and Tsuyoi, have the same joyful smile that keeps reminding him of that day.

That day in which he had finally became a hero.

This is the smile he has to protect, now.

For her and every person she will save in the future.

"Oh dear me," Izuku suddenly gasps out under his breath as he taps lightly at both his back pockets.

Tsuyoi notices his distress and asks, "What's wrong, Dad?"

"I-I forgot my wallet in the car!" Izuku admits with a rather pained smile.

His daughter merely stares at him in disbelief before shaking her head with a sigh, "Fine, I'll go get it."

"No!" Izuku unknowingly blurts out, "I'll g-go."

"If you say so, Dad," Tsuyoi smiles in an contradictory way, as she feels rather exasperated by her father's antics.

But Izuku on the other hand has his stomach constricted by the sudden sheer stress. He uses this chance to excuse himself out of the mall.

Once he's out of the sight of his daughter, and closer towards his car, he can finally feel his heart eases.

In a daze, he reaches for his car keys. The doors unlock with a loud beep.

He shouldn't be panicking.

This is his first outing with Tsuyoi after a long time, after all.

So why... is he looking at her like she is Ochako?

He shakes his head, finally spotting the leather wallet sitting in the holder by door.

Everything is fine.

Everything is fine.

Everything is—

BOOM!

"HUH?!"

He bolts out of the car, feeling his old heart had almost jump out of his chest. With a shaking grip on the door of his car, he looks back, towards the smoke that rises from the mall.

The middle aged man panics on where he stands, unable to move his muscles in a daze of confusion and horror.

But when a thought of Tsuyoi crosses his mind, he quickly dashes into the midst of the panicking crowd.

The mall is burning, Izuku screams inside his head. Something must have happened inside. Villain attack? He wishes it isn't.

Midway through the destination, he crashes onto the flood of civilians. Everyone else still seems to be in a panicked state, he finds himself unable to move forward from the unbreakable human wall.

There are screams everywhere, but none of them close to what he can hear as a noticeable villain.

His blood pumping into his veins, forcing himself through the crowds like a rock splitting water. His vision is blurred with colors fading and appearing all at once, but he still needs to force himself forward.

He curses himself under his breath, wishing that he could've just stayed by his daughter's side like he had promised.

Finally, just as he arrives at the front stairs, he spots her.

"Tsuyoi!" He shouts at the top of his lungs, trying to catch her attention.

The girl seems frozen, not moving an inch of her muscles. Izuku manages to close their distances, and when he catches a glimpse of her look, he is suddenly reminded of the familiar look he had once knew.

Without thinking, he grabs her shoulder and pulls her back, "We need to get out of here!"

There are still more and more people rushing out of the building like a stampede through the plains. He sees no stopping to this whole commotion. He can't spot any signs of a villain, but what he can do is get his daughter to safety.

"Tsuyoi!" He shouts again, tightening the grip on her shoulder, "Tsuyoi listen to me! We need to get out of here before—"

"There's still people..."

"... W-what?"

She turns at him and gives him a dignified look, "I'm going to save the civilians! You go an get the rest far from the mall where they wouldn't be harmed!"

Her body glows an unnatural shade of crimson, like lightning bolts flashing off of her skin. The moment he watches as she starts to give off the sudden powerful aura, brimming with unstoppable determination, he realizes the look she has while staring at him.

"Are you crazy?!" He shouts back, fearing for the worst of outcomes, "We don't even know what's going on here! We'll let the Pro Heroes handle these kind of stuff—"

"We can't!" Tsuyoi tugs under his grip, trying to flee into the smoke ridden lobby, "There won't be much time! Please, Dad!"

Much to his horror, she successfully breaks out of his grasp, leaving him speechless as he watches her begin running into danger. But just as she is close to disappearing, up the front stairs towards the grim unknown, he manages to throw one last grab at her wrist.

"Tsuyoi, don't do this!" He pleads to her, unable to think.

She returns him a tear stricken look, her whole body brimming with Full Cowl, "HOW CAN I BE LIKE YOU IF I CAN'T EVEN SAVE THOSE IN NEED?!"

And just like that, she activates All-For-One. Her body is now completely filled with power spilling from every inch of her person, just waiting to blow her up like a glass cannon.

Izuku still cannot chase her, not in her current state. The girl disappears just as quick as lightning.

Her father wastes not even a second to chase her, praying to whatever god is listening to get her back from the danger she is about to face.

It occurs to him how very familiar this moment is.

It reminds him of that certain dastardly day.

Not her, too... Izuku closes his eyes and hopes.

And just before he knows it, a sudden explosion pushes him back. The shockwave that fires the glass panels from every inch of the building strikes at his skin.

The moment he lands at the concrete floor, he had already bled.

The shattered glass claws at the innards of his skin, the stinging pain of his headache amalgamates with the intense ringing in his ears, he can still feel the heat of the explosions sizzling at his face. He can't move, not in his paralyzed state, both in fear and in pain.

But he manages to look up, into the fire that burns as the red abyss spreads in the building before him.

His lips tremble. He wants to shriek, in terror.

But only one sound manages to come out of his bleeding mouth:

"Tsuyoi?"

 **|[A/N]|**

 **Damn I need to ease back on my ideas.**

 **Here's a little something after watching The Foreigner starring Jackie Chan.**

 **Thanks for reading, leave a review and follow if you liked the story. Please keep me updated on whether or not I should continue this.**


	2. Stage Two: Numbness

**|[Letter Hacks]|**

 **To Karlos1234ify: **_Thank you Karlos for your review, I hope this chapter would intrigue you the same._

 **To** **GiintokiSakata** **:** _Thanks bud. Keep reading mate, hope this one is better._

 **To ShuujinTakagi: **_Entiendo. Haré exactamente eso. Hehe..._

 **To WhenItCOUNTS:** _No. One-For-All is gone and Izuku has to live with that along with the death of his daughter._

 **To Alvadasaint:** _Quite so. That is, in fact, without a hint of doubt, is all, my good sir._

 **To secret-werewolves:** _Thank you._ _Yes. Indeed. It is quite sad for her to pass away. Thank you._

* * *

 **|[20th June - Early Morning]|**

All around him are familiar faces, sometimes ones that are even the kind in which he recognizes several time every time he takes Tsuyoi back from school.

Teenagers are also there, mourning the death of their friend who had once walked amongst them as equals as heroes in training.

But now, even when the old are crying and the young ones are baffled, Izuku still couldn't find it in him to cry.

He is the first to give the few words of remembrance, yet he merely gives the audience a few petty words that don't matter to anyone. Because even though he may not look it, he feels as much guilt as the sorrow that everyone else feel in the funeral.

For one thing, Izuku never wanted to be here.

This funeral, set up by his old friends and those who knew Tsuyoi from school, it is hellish pain stinging at his heart worse than the day he had broke both his arms.

It has been about a week after Tsuyoi's death and Izuku has been devastated during the long nights. He couldn't bare to relive the moments of the day when he had failed to save his only daughter.

The daughter that he and his late wife had always wanted to have.

His friends, from the time they had known each from back in high school, from the time they had become students of U.A. had came to his house to comfort him first and foremost. He can name all of them who arrived today at the funeral in the memory of his daughter, not to mention that she was also the daughter of their two most memorable and loved in the world.

Even so, the appearance of many others seems to have rather surprised him, from the parents of Tsuyoi's classmates back in Shiketsu High to fellow old friends from U.A's Class 1-B, 30 years prior.

All of them have their families with them, and all grieves for the same death that Izuku does. But even so, when they say that they mourn, or that Izuku needs to be strong... he hides the fact that he feels even more guilt with every words of support spilling from their mouths.

"I'm sorry for your loss, man," Eijiro Kirishima tells him, sporting a side combed spiky hair. The frown in his lips almost shows Izuku the that he mourns as much as he does, "I know she was very precious to you and... I can't believe someone like her could just... gone... like that... I'll get whoever did it, I promise you!"

"Eijirou!" Mina Ashido, now has long engaged to Kirishima, snaps at her husband, before turning to Izuku with a rather saddened look in her black sclera, "I'm sorry, Izuku. I know it's been hard for you. We'll always be your pillars of support, like we've always been!"

Izuku wants to scream in denial, yet he only smiles at that, unable to get himself to face the shameful lie in which the obligations cause the vulnerability in Eijirou's positivity and the sadness in Mina's eyes.

"I'm... so sorry, Midoriya," Momo Yaoyorozu bows to him, hiding the tears that embarrassingly ruins her mascara.

She is standing right next to her husband, Shouto Todoroki, who furrows his brows and tries to smile even when he sees both his wife and his best friend mourning, "You're going to be okay, Midoriya. We shall be wherever you want us to be, please remember that."

Izuku tries to beg to them to stop, inside his mind. He feels painfully ashamed, thinking that he causes the tears that spill from his friend's eyes. Many more says the same, and no matter what it only makes him even more mortified.

"We're sorry for your loss," said one family whose child goes to the same school as Tsuyoi, "She was a very cheerful girl. It was a shame for her to pass away."

Izuku smiles yet again.

"Midoriya, we hope these can help ease you," Itsuka Kendou, former president of Class 1-B, now bears a silver ring on her left hand as she hands a large bouquet of flowers with many charms and amulets in the form of omamori, "The old class of 1-B made these for you, and... we hope you like it..."

Izuku gives his word, but he knows he can't grant her wish.

"Izu-niisan," Eri's sweet voice chimes in, not perfectly hiding the croak of sadness in her tone. She looks up to her self-proclaimed brother in hope of any light in his eyes. Used to be a little girl with a rather petite horn, now she bears the emblem of the Number 2 Hero, "Kouta and I wants to invite you to dinner with a couple of friends. Please be okay until then..."

Izuku literally wants to kill himself right there and then. This is it. He couldn't believe he had caused his beloved Eri to cry.

"Midoriya," came the gruff voice of Bakugou Katsuki. The man who finally manages to land himself in Number 1. The pause after Izuku's surname almost made the grieving widower scared, "... Auntie wants to take you to lunch on Saturday... Get yourself to ease up by then... Sorry..."

Izuku couldn't blame him for trying. Therefore, he thanks him for his condolences.

Then they disperse, one by one. Until it is finally time for Izuku to go home. He immediately recalls every visit and every word that they said to him, feeling a tinge or pain from believing that he had caused them to do such meaningless things.

Because, let's face it, Tsuyoi died because of him.

The drive home has been uneventful, yet the same exhausting feeling that pulls him down makes him wonder if he still hasn't quite let go.

He looks at his face through the rear view mirro, the discoloration of the once bright hue of a forest in summer has been chipped away to grey and black. The aforementioned emotion of distraught brought him, not only the anxiety that will keep most people crying in their beds at night, but the irreversible grim look that he has, thereafter the damage that is done after the death of a loved one.

He walks down sloppily onto the pavement of his home, fitting his car keys into his pockets after he slowly but surely locks the door behind him. He looks in the window panel in front of him just as he stop by the porch, staring at the dim reflection on the opaque glass, tear stricken expressions brightly saturates the pale skin under the light of the dim morning sun creeping from the blinds of his room.

Falling on his shoulders, he walks into his living room, closing the door behind him. He proceeds to walk towards the silent abyss of his house. His black leather shoes tapping on the mat as he stops by the sight in front of him.

He catches on to nothing but pain and grief, enveloping himself in the darkness of his now silent household, never to be heard of ever again the sound of a teenage girl rummaging around the rooms, searching for her father.

The television catches snow, buzzing endlessly for days in his yet to be cleaned again living room. With the passing minute in every tick of the large hand of the analog clock sitting atop the sofa with bleak transparency mirroring the somber atmosphere that leaks out from every leftover nook and cranny.

Izuku sees all the sight before him in vain, greeting the heartache that had longed poisoned him with comfort. When he stands very still on the middle of the quiet household, like a lone tree near drying in the afterglow of nightfall catching the sandy wind that strikes him and sways him in a melancholic rhythm.

He looks towards the staircase in crimson runners, his eyes trailing up towards the dark second floor area. Slowly he averts his footsteps upstairs, his hand running across the railings. The wristwatch under the white shirt hidden under his black suit gleams for the last time before he disappears to the darkness upstairs.

The small light switch right next to his arm lights up the second floor hallway with just a flick of his index finger, illuminating the two remaining doors in his household.

On one side he sees the second floor bathroom, with the frame emanating small tiny black lines running up the side. Izuku walks towards it, looking closely at every black lines he drew once or twice every year. With his right hand he run his fingertips over every drawn date on the doorframe, until he stops to a certain line that dates back to 12 years ago.

He pulls his hand away. Feeling a certain indescribable sting on his skin. An undesirable nostalgia following a rather faint recollection of his daughter.

That is until he turns his head to look behind him, towards the other door with a hanging sign, spelling the kanji, "緑谷強い".

Izuku furrows his brows, unable to hide the apparent shock that struck his expression. He tries not to let himself look weak, pulling away the tears that are forcing themselves out of the corners of his eyes, something that he had been trying to hide away from Tsuyoi ever since of her mother's death.

Even now... even after both their passing... Izuku still has the might to convince himself not to cry.

With his mind screaming again and again, for him not to let out even a drop of tear, he shakily reaches for the door handle. He cups the wooden indented wooden panel with his other hand, unknowingly letting his forehead touch the cold surface of the door before him.

He closes his eyes, still hoping for his ears to catch anything emitting from the inside.

He sighs deeply, turning the knob sideways before pushing it inwards. The light from the hallway disperses towards anything that it can touch in the empty room, slowly but surely filling almost every darkness that is devoid of life inside with the seemingly bright luminance, revealing the unwanted truth to he who stares inside.

Izuku grips the knob with something similar to only half his strength, clenching it tight enough for his knuckles to whiten. The blinds are closed and the door stands ajar, yet the light is enough to let him see the great desolation before him.

He looks around, unable to comprehend the emotions he feels inside his heart. Suddenly, his feet bring him forward, stepping into the abandonment of a bedroom that was once filled with his hopes and dreams.

"Tsuyoi," he unknowingly mutters out.

He looks into her wardrobe, seeing her newly washed and unused Shiketsu High uniforms hanging by the drawer, one particular hat catches his attention, and it sits under her clothes gleaming its little Shiketsu High emblem. Noticing the many stuffed toys sitting idly on the top of her wardrobe and catching dust, he reaches towards a particular All Might style doll. The oversized proportion of his six pack puzzles him, it made All Might look rather round than buff.

But then he sees it, a doll styled after himself.

He puts the All Might doll back where it belongs, in return he takes the Deku doll all to himself.

"Tsuyoi," he says as he stares at the doll in his hands.

The little human shaped doll smiles at him with freckly cheeks, colored in a hue of red for his blush, wild synthetic green hairs fuming from the top of his head, and his old green and grey hero costume.

"Tsuyoi," He says as he flops on top of an unused bed.

His hand falls toward the gap between his legs with the doll's little stub arm still being hold onto, limply it lie idle as it hangs onto his motionless arms. His gaze blurs as he stares into a rather archaic nothingness, the same familiar worn out grey color painting the world around him for years.

"Tsuyoi," he says with a croak rising.

Steadily he cups his hands, hiding his pale face from the rest of the world.

With what started with a sniff, it becomes an uncontrollable sobbing.

"Ochako," he cries out to the empty air, "I don't know what to do, Ochako. Please! I-I don't know what to do!"

His distressed moan, both ringing out in sadness and agony, hopelessly echoing through the second floor hallway, through the silent darkness of the same silent home, marks the day that Izuku Midoriya has officially died.

 **|[15 Years Ago - Early Afternoon]|**

"I'm pregnant."

Izuku stares at his wife with blank eyes, unable to comprehend the words that the woman in front of him had just said.

Ochako Uraraka herself is also in an apparent surprise by her husband's behavior, or lack thereof. But even so, she herself needs to remind herself that the situation at hand is possibly the most important complication that they had to make notice of during an intimate relationship. They had also established this during the night of their honeymoon.

But that is not the case. It's both their first time, and such, it is quite understandable why Izuku seems rather shocked and disbelieved.

Ochako makes a look of disapproval, pouting at him for the lack of response.

"Say something!" The brunette snaps at him with her hands on her waist.

Izuku shakes his head in a hasty manner, putting down the newspaper he is currently reading, and finally entering the stage of action, "I'm sorry, I thought you said you were—"

"—pregnant," Ochako finishes for him, "Yes, Izuku, I'm pregnant."

Izuku's mouth is agape, almost hitting the floor in bewilderment, but it is in his blood to rather overreact to any particular tribulations.

"But that's astronomically impossible!" He shrieks in panic as he stands up from his couch, "I took countermeasures! I made sure that you were on a safe day! I bought condoms! The stars aren't aligned! The peach hadn't been cut! The Fox God hadn't descended upon us—!"

"Izuku!" Ochako stops him mid sentence, furrowing her eyebrows in frustration, "The Fox God has descended upon us! I was fertile, okay? Your calculations were off!"

Izuku's shoulders slump down in despair, until Ochako adds more to the table with a rather red face cupped in embarrassment behind the palm of her hand, "And... we did it five times... the condom ran out on three..."

The husband merely returns back a laugh, grabbing locks of his green hair in distress, "W-what are we gonna do?"

Ochako's pupils dilate, fearing for the worst, "Do you want to... abort it?"

"Heavens no!" Izuku shouts at her, but quickly retracts his steps back, "I just... I just think that I can't be a good... er... father... I can't be there all the time for it when I'm the Number 1 Hero! And what's more, what if it doesn't want to inherit One-For-All? What if we can't buy it anything it wants and they'll rebel?!"

Ochako seems speechless for a couple of seconds, before she giggles at her husband. She pats her striped turtleneck covered tummy in front of him, smiling softly with a gleaming gaze.

"Whatever it'll become, I know it's going to be our hero no matter what it'll grow up to be," She says, before looking up to face him once more, "I know, because it's your child!"

But still, Izuku isn't thoroughly convinced, not even the great desire to let his wife bear a child could fight away the looming anxiety that is the fear of not being able to become the parent his mother had always wanted him to be.

Surely, being a Number 1 Hero meant something, but what the hell can it do against the child the love of his life will bear? Is he willing to risk the millions of people of Japan for his child?

What can he do?

What can he possibly do?

He's the Symbol of Peace yet the table has turn on him.

"If you're afraid, Izuku," Ochako says as she walks towards him with both her hands holding onto his own, "You'll always be our Number 1 Dad, no matter what you do. Anything you do for our child, I know that it's for the best of intentions. I'm not mad, I'm just... so, so happy to tell you.."

Izuku still has his mouth open, he is currently trying to find the words that he wants to say, but he ultimately fails at it. With determined eyes he clenches his fist.

"I'll retire," he says in response, gripping her hands tightly in reassurance. In the haze of the situation, Izuku looks down on the shorter woman, his eye blazing in undeterred , "I promise I'll be here for our child."

Ochako blinks at him, "Will you be okay?"

"If it's for you," he reassures her yet again, "I will be here."

Such strong words are enough for Ochako, she couldn't be more happier to announce the news. It doesn't strike her yet again why she was so afraid to tell him, but it doesn't matter to her anymore when she is between the tight embrace from the comforting warmth of her loved one.

And for Izuku, he hopes that his words are enough for god to hear for it to become a reality. Because he means every letter of it, every sound that had came out of his mouth in a bloody oath. He will be here, even in jeopardy or in a seeming inescapable situation, for his family.

They are both adults, after all. It's time they run things by themselves. The two aren't in high school anymore, as Izuku stands a full 4 inch higher than Ochako does, and they are now responsible of a living human baby.

 **|[20th June - Dusk]|**

The sound of the doorbell ringing from the unseen void around Izuku catches his attention. The slow echoing in his head, a sure vibration of a bell bringing him out of his deep exhausted slumber, is noticed just after he manages to bear his eyes onto the world around him.

His body still and unmoving, the breathing that he does on top of a certain mattress he was sleeping on makes him realize the position he is in. He feels a rather soft yet sensitive feeling between his arms as he runs his finger through mysterious silk like hair.

With a rather steady jolt, he lifts his head from the linen bedsheet colored a bright hue of forest green, somehow he still hasn't quite recollect anything from the past hour, but he knows for sure that he had been sleeping long enough for his back to catch sweat. He stares at the shadow under his feet as he sits by the edge of the bed, forming the formal shoes that he wears from the orange sun that lies just in the horizon outside the window.

The heat from the enclosed room brings the putrid stench of his body odor to life, the black suit he is wearing is wet and wrinkled as he runs his hand over his own back. The little Deku plushie sits on his lap, the poor doll hasn't been able to escape his embrace ever since he fell asleep with the doll in his arms.

He hears another echo of a doorbell from outside the room he's currently sitting in. An overwhelming silence filled with an apparent puzzlement strikes his expressions. He looks at his watch and notices that a rather problematic situation has befallen him.

In his mind, he tries to hide the fact that he had been sleeping for hours. He quickly lifts himself up from the edge of the bed before hastily walking out of the room.

The doorbell rings once more, and when he stands halfway down the staircase he sees a hazy silhouette through the glass panels on his door. He tries to remember what appointments he has today, apart from the funeral he had unwillingly joined in. Perhaps it's not the best time to answer the door during his most disheveled time; or any time for that manner.

But somehow, his feet still manages to bring him towards the entrance to his house. He faces the door with a hesitant look, he takes to rather hasty glance through the opaque glass, before internally cursing after seeing the face he did not want to see yet still expected the see it regardless.

Just as he opens the door half heartedly, he comes face to face with a fellow old friend he had to reassure of his current state all the same.

"Can I come in?" Tsuyu Asui asks him. Her black blazer and shirt pencil skirt gleaming under the dusk sun just as much as the marble necklace sitting on her collarbone. She gives him a smile which was struck by her age, unknown to him why she's willing to go to such lengths, "Please, it'll only be a while."

Izuku quickly wants to deny her of her rights to enter, but somehow he can't fight the stern nature that Tsuyu Asui continuously shoots at him ever since high school.

"N-no thanks, Asui," he tries to decline, slowly closing the door instinctively, "I-I'm fine, Asui, thank you. I need to catch up on work and—"

"Liar," Tsuyu chimes, the barren look on her eyes willingly decides the fate of the man before her, "I know you haven't been answering your workplace calls because you weren't there. Your boss also told me that you were on break for days."

The door that he tries so desperately to close isn't even given the privilege to do so, "N-no, I mean I have a lot of things here that needs quite the amount of sorting—"

"I'll help with whatever I can do," Tsuyu once again forces his mouth shut in the middle of his half-assed lies, she puts a hand on his door and denies him to close it, "I won't be here long, I promise."

"I-I'll let you know on the phone, honest!" He begs her, somehow feeling a rather immovable strength pushing him away from the door.

"You didn't answer my calls after the funeral! You've never even called me back after a week!" Tsuyu berates harshly, still forcing herself through the entrance, "Izuku, open the door!"

Desperate, he tries to come up with something in the nick of time, "W-what about the kids?! I know you can't just leave them on—"

"They're on vacation with my husband," Tsuyu's quick to counter him yet again, "For God's sake, Izuku, OPEN THE DAMN DOOR!"

It was then that Izuku completely lost all of his might, admitting defeat to Tsuyu Asui in pure shock, rapidly walking back from the door and let it open for the guest to enter his household. Even after all this time he still couldn't believe he would be the reason Tsuyu Asui would curse.

She steps into the entryway from the porch, pulling off her shoes one by one as she stands before Izuku with sharp looks in her eyes.

"Thank you," she tells him, before bowing her head, "I apologize for cursing."

Izuku cannot say a single word, even the sight of her in his house is rather overwhelming by itself. He tries to look the best he can, straightening his pose before smiling before her in an awkward way, the effort that he puts isn't quite enough to convince her.

"C-can I help you?" Izuku says politely, wondering if he should make tea or not.

"You look worse by the day," she bluntly says as she pulls off her blazer before putting it on the hanger by the wall beside her, "That's why I forced myself into your home. Forgive me, but I can't stand imagining how you'd be if I hadn't."

"I'm fine," Izuku's response comes as quick just as she has finished speaking, "Seriously, it's okay."

Tsuyu is also quick enough to scoff in extreme disbelief, "Thank God you aren't Pinocchio, right?"

Izuku says nothing, as he has already given up. When he willfully walks back towards the living room, he tries to seclude himself from his guest. He reaches into the television remote sitting idly on the edge of the coffee table in the dark living room before shutting the channel off once and for all.

His heart aches to be left alone, for he feels as if having more people to feel obliged to help will only bring him the agony of guilt.

"So why did you come here," something in Izuku seems to have been died, as his voice had turned completely blank with nothing but a hazy monotone that lacks the empathy a normal human should have, "Besides lecturing me, I mean."

Tsuyu sighs, unable to make herself believe that this is what her old friend has become. Fair enough she couldn't understand the feeling of loss in anyone in her family. She had lost her father once, and that was the most painful moment of her life. If she could feel that way to the death of her own father, she couldn't imagine how it feels like to lose a mate and a daughter in a lifetime.

Yes, she knows she is powerless to do anything, but she can't jut sit around doing nothing while her best friend is slowly rotting away.

"We've all been worried for you, you know," she says as she looks for whatever switch in the room that turns on the light to drive away the darkness that envelops the living room, "Ever since Ochako died, when we all held a funeral for you and comforted you the night after, we know that we can't replace the hole in your heart after her death."

Izuku sits down on the couch, not saying anything to deny such statements. He looks rather forlorn, staring into nothingness as he tries to avert his gaze from the apprehensive stare of his guest.

"I hate it when you do that," Izuku responses, his voice falling to the edge of lowness, "It makes me feel like you all had to do this because of me, and it makes me sick. It shames me so."

Tsuyu can see as his knuckles gripped each other tightly as they intertwined together in front of him. "We are rightfully allowed to worry for you. Ochako was our best friend, too."

"She was my everything," Izuku adds, "Then they took her, and they took Tsuyoi as well."

"I know this is hard for you, Izuku," Tsuyu walks towards the couch facing him, sitting just across from him with the coffee table sitting in between, "but please understand that I hate seeing you like this."

"You have no idea what I'm going through," Izuku is quick to retaliate.

But Tsuyu has already known better, "I do. And it's the most disgusting thing I can imagine you doing."

He lifts his head up, looking at her in apparent confusion. Then, as much as Tsuyu doesn't like to say it in front of his face, she knows that she can't lie to him by acting as if she is the most naive person on the planet.

"Shinsou Hitoshi told me," She reveals, looking at him in the eye for any sign of hesitancy in his eyes, "You have been skipping work, to visit the police station even. Why didn't you tell me you were investigating Tsuyoi's death?"

Izuku's eyes widen, staring at the guest in front of him with blank eyes. He blinks twice, his body seems frozen to the state where he isn't able to say anything.

Tsuyu uses this to ask him again, "Is that true?"

For a second, there is a pregnant pause with Izuku looking up and down in apparent confusion. His lips are mumbling something that Tsuyu is unable to hear. She is hoping that he will say something that will convince her that it is a misunderstanding, but it scares her that she knows the he isn't.

Unknowingly to her, Izuku stands up, before walking away from the sitting area, "Come with me."

She hesitantly stands up, still unable to process the truth that is unveiling in front of her.

He takes her to his first floor bedroom, hidden next to the kitchen where it connects to the first floor bathroom. The last time she has visited Izuku was a year ago where they celebrated Tsuyoi's graduation from middle school. She knows how Tsuyoi's room looks like the last time she had been here, but she takes the right to respect the privacy of Izuku's own bedroom on that day.

Now, as Izuku invites her into the dark bedroom that was once where he and Ochako slept, she feels a looming anxiety overwhelming her with doubt and she fears what she might find inside.

Izuku turns on the light before staring into a wall, and once Tsuyu also walks in she finally sees something she feels she might not been allowed to see.

Hanging by two nails in the wall, where the concrete dusts piles up and sits on the intersection of the wall and the floor, a large bulletin board greets her with an ominous tone as it overwhelms anything else in the room. With many books scattered on the floor, several hundred newspaper towers piling up on the bed, and stationary items sitting idly in every corner of the room, it dawns on her how mad Izuku has become.

She walks towards the bulletin board, her feet slowly avoiding the little pens and thumbtacks on the floorings around her, and when she's face to face with hundreds upon hundreds of cut up newspapers and tabloids each hanging by with one piece of thumbtacks. Headlines and columns circled with red and blue markers, sometimes yellow highlighter pens running through lines upon lines of news. Everything seems to be connected in the same manners of a linked analysis, and not just by red threads connecting one headline to the other, every headline seems to say many of the same repeating words Tsuyu can spot.

"Bomb"

"Casualties"

"Villains"

"Investigation"

She quickly looks back at Izuku with a horrified look on her face. Yet Izuku merely stares at the ground with a disheveled look hiding the disappointment in his eyes.

"What is this?" Tsuyu pleads for an answer, stomping towards him with eyes filled with horror, "What the hell were you doing?!"

"I can't let go," Izuku growls at her before pushing her aside, approaching the board himself.

Tsuyu cannot believe the mess in his room, the scattering dusts that picks up by the covers of every possible tabloids and newspaper shows how much Izuku has changed over the past week.

This isn't the same Izuku Midoriya she knows in high school.

"When it struck the first time, I was already unable to get close to her. Then when I actually could, I was too late, the second explosion had struck," Izuku says, picking up one tabloid column that was stuck to the bulletin board, "Ever since that day I kept thinking... they aren't going to stop at one... the hero that she looks up to me as had failed to save her... heh, can you believe that?"

He then walks towards the other end of the bulletin board, picking up another headline that he once stuck to a certain end of a red thread. He stares at it, reading the contents inside.

"When I woke up after the first blast, I was already being hauled away by the police. I begged them to let me go," He continues, "I can still see the fire burning behind me, and I still don't know how many died that die, including Tsuyoi."

He walks again, this time to the center. He reaches towards the newspaper headlines hanging just above his head and pulls them down. Just as Tsuyu guesses that he is done, he proceeds to sit on the edge of his unmade bed.

"None of these... says anything about the death of a student from Shiketsu High," Izuku tells her, reading the many cut up headlines and columns in his hands, "But when they show a picture of an injured student from U.A, the whole country went mad. They cherry picked the facts and build a comforting lie on top of the bodies that were failed to be saved. All of these said nothing about the truth, what they all did was just saying that the heroes had managed to prevent even more casualties... But what about my Tsuyoi? What of the ones they didn't save?"

Tsuyu says nothing, she stands there in front of him, right near the door that stands ajar. She's speechless, not quite wanting to believe that Izuku has sunk this low.

But what catches her attention is the fact that Izuku has started crying silently, while looking at the torn up papers in his hands.

"I... I... was so angry... I begged Shinso to give me names... anything that can lead me to the bombers... I did everything I could to investigate through the evidence... I wanted to know that the people who killed her... isn't going to do it again," He sniffs, spilling his tears to the paper below him as his face contorts in fury, "I can't let go... kept thinking about what happened... I can't sleep... I can't face her face on my albums anymore... everything was my fault, Asui... and they way they treat her death like a perfect scoop... it's not f-fair..."

Immediately, Tsuyu walks towards his bed before sitting beside him. With her large hands patting the top of his scruffy hair, she willingly eases his pain with any methods she can think of. She leans in close and kisses the side of his head, right under his ear as she whispers to him something that she'd like him to hear.

"Do you remember," Tsuyu says in a soft tone, "the vow you made at your own wedding? When I was Ochako's bridesmaid, she told how happy she was to finally marry The Number 1 Hero, but furthermore, she told me how very scared she was to marry her best friend, the person she loved the most in her life."

Izuku turns his head at her, there is sadness and surprise in the corner of his bloodshot eyes. Tsuyu merely softens her gaze, sympathizing with him. Her frog like smile curves upwards, she reaches to his gripping hands before cupping them gently, assuring himself of comfort.

"She's scared if something were to happen to you on your job, she's scared if she had failed him as the Number 1 Hero's wife, and she's scared if this had ruined whatever relationship the two of you had during high school," Tsuyu continues, looking at him straight in the eye without mercy, "But she knew that she wouldn't give up. She wouldn't give up on you even if it was for the world. Why? Because if the two of you are in any trouble, the rest of us will always be there to help. She's scared for the two of you, but she's more scared for what it would do to the people she loves. Even when she feels like entering a dead end, or whenever she feels like giving up, its always you who'll always bring her up to her feet. The same goes for the rest of us. We need you as our friend, because just as Ochako feared, you're sinking down and excluding yourself on your own depression for the death that wasn't even your fault."

Izuku hangs his head, finally looking away from his friend. He is unable to get himself to think straight, his heart crammed inside his throat, giving him the inability to speak whatever it is he wants to say.

But even so, there is still an equal look of discomfort in his eyes. Tsuyu can see it, the pain that refuses to go away even after years of chances to move on. At first, the second she decided to visit Midoriya, she had been quite optimistic. The person she usually is, the nature in which she doesn't care whom she tries to help as they are her best friend, is suddenly being pulled back by an overwhelming emotion of doubt.

She can see it in his eyes, something is different about him. It makes her question whether or not the person sitting across of her is the same Izuku Midoriya she had used to know. It hurts her even more when she sympathizes with his suffering.

Silence fills the bedroom, until Izuku decides to speak up as he finally finds his voice, "I can't let this go."

With just one sentence, Tsuyu can feel her heart drop. She knows that she herself expected such things from her best friend's mouth, even so she doesn't want to hear how she is powerless to do anything. She wants to understand, she really does. In fact, she has to do so when she sees her best friend crying.

"Everything Ochako tried to built... our family, our house, and even our daughter..." Izuku's voice fades away into a low growl, squinting his teary eyes in rising anger, "... I destroyed it, all of it. I couldn't save the both of them. I couldn't... I couldn't even see how they died... I couldn't even watch my Tsuyoi grow into a hero... I've let Ochako down when I failed her daughter... I've let Tsuyoi down when I failed her mother... I've let Toshinori down when she took One-For-All with her..."

"Izuku..." Tsuyu says in worry, growing a mild sting in her chest.

Then, without warning, Izuku shouts out into the air in anger. He lowers his gaze as he trots his teeth while choking out words of hatred and despair, "I've failed Ochako! I've failed Toshinori! And now... and now Tsuyoi too!"

Tsuyu is quick to read the situation, at the least she can still be here for him. She hangs her head down, willing to listen to anything Izuku has to say. For the first time in her life, she feels so hopeless watching her best friend decay like this.

"What kind of person am I..." Izuku curses out under his breath, sweating profusely, "I'm sorry... I can't even think what the others might think of me if they see me like this... but I just can't let go."

"I hate seeing you like this, Izuku," Tsuyu starts tearing up as well, "I'm not going to stop trying to do whatever I can. I will still be here."

Izuku pauses, before closing his eyes in admittance, "I know."

"Please try to forget, Izuku," Tsuyu says as she hugs him tightly, hiding her soft sobs behind his shoulder. Her embrace holds many emotions, ones she couldn't make sure of if it is her own. Rather, she freely accepts the fact that she wants to share the pain that he feels.

The two shares each other's sadness in silence. One who feels the most of the past from a silent echo of guilt inside his heart, and the other secretly missing the comforting remembrance of what once was her friend.

* * *

 **|[A/N]|**

 **I decided that I'm going to continue this story. Thank you for those who supported the first chapter. I hope this second one will also suffice.**

 **I'll apologize in advance for my bad grammar, sumimasen.**

 **Also, constructive criticism is always appreciated.**

 **Please review, leave something you'd like to ask me, and I'll see you on the next update.**


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